Tonight, Logo TV is airing its Trailblazers special, which pays tribute to pioneers for LGBT equality. The event features a lot of musicians, including the former R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, there to present an award to John Abadallah Wambere, an activist in Uganda. While he was onstage to present the award, Stipe talked a bit about what it was like to be queer in the early ’80s, revealing that he waited five years to get an HIV test because the specter of state-sanctioned discrimination, something that’s happening in Uganda now, was terrifying to him. Watch Stipe make his presentation below.

Trailblazers airs tonight at 9 eastern on Logo TV, and it features appearances from Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, Tegan And Sara, Sia, and many others.